Society in China Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Society in China - Research Paper Example The Cultural Revolution, as per the narration of the Jan Wong, was launched in May 1966. Mao, the then chairperson of the Communist Party of China, alleged that the elements of the bourgeois were infiltrating the government and society at large, aiming to restore capitalism. Mao Zedong insisted that the revisionists, ought to be removed through violent class struggle. The youth of China, responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country-Party leadership itself. In cultures that are non-industrialized, two major forces define gender disparity in the distribution of work and these are the men’s greater power and physic and women’s childbearing and nurturing responsibilities. As long as maternal care does not disrupt a mother’s activities and if women have a way of enhancing their bodily strength, they can and do partake in activities that are in the contrary male dominated. Presence of such means varies over culture and environment. ² Therefore, men and women are not downright different people. Women may have more of a particular characteristic; there may be traits that men have more of, but it should not be a case that men and women are essentially and radically different on these psychological characteristics This resulted to widespread factional struggles in all lifestyles. In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior officials who were accused of taking a "capitalist road", most notably Liu shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. During the same period, Mao's personality cult grew to immense proportions. During China’s long revolutionary years, the state both promoted and negated new roles for women. The most severe reaction against female activism was the Guomindang’s counter-revolution, called the White Terror, when female activists were accused of being instigators of societal chaos. During Chiang Kai-shek’s relentless hunt for Communists, thousands of women were murdered and raped, including those who had simply bobbed their hair. The Communists, for their part, turned away from what they saw as bourgeois feminist reforms to attack the socioeconomic conditions they perceived as the source of all female oppressions. The idea was that once gender difference was erased, women would be freed to help spearhead the â€Å"new society.† Mao Zedong coined the phrase â€Å"Women Hold up Half the Sky,† and set in motion a campaign to get women out of the home and into the work force. Selections from oral histories collected during the period illustrate his attempts to mobilize the lowest in society, the female peasant, so she could confront â€Å"feudalâ₠¬  fathers, husbands, or property owners. Millions of people were persecuted in the violent factional struggles that ensued across the country, and suffered a wide range of abuses including public humiliation, arbitrary 2345imprisonment, torture, sustained harassment, and seizure of property. A large segment of the population was forcibly displaced, most notably the transfer of urban youth to rural regions during the Down to the Countryside Movement, Rather, the DCM. Historical relics and artifacts were destroyed. Cultural and religious sites were ransacked. Female-specific concerns continued facing disregard, during the Cultural Revolution when equality between sexes faced assumption and class war took